In The Refiner's Fire

Wow, Holy Week hasn't been what we thought it would be. It was spring break for all of us this week and we had planned to do several small projects around the house and take a couple of free-except-for-gas day trips. That wasn't the way it turned out.  The children and I have been down and out with a massive set of head colds.  That meant we spent a ton of hours this week just laying around, sleeping and blowing our noses and coughing.  It was lousy. Thus, we didn't do much in the way of frugal things, unless you count doing nothing, which I guess is frugal.  Here are the few things we did: * We managed to eat all the meals at home this week.  John did bring leftovers from a meal at church home one night but otherwise we ate toast, canned or frozen soup, and 'easy' food like pancakes. * We listened to audiobooks we checked out from the Public Library. * We watched videos we already owned or ones that we available free online. * We ...

  Blurry photo of our Perfect Potato Soup with cheddar cheese and crumbled bacon on top.  YUM!  Perfect on a cold night. It's Holy Week and we only have an event one night this week, other than Worship Thursday and Friday nights.  I'm rather pleased about that!  Things start to get really busy once April gets into full swing so I am looking forward to a bit of quiet before the busy sets in. Here's what we're eating this week: Sunday, March 25, 2018, Palm Sunday:       Breakfast: Toast and Banana-Blueberry Smoothies       Lunch: Brunch at Church - Fundraiser for the Youth Group       Snack: Popcorn       Dinner: Beef Roast, Green Beans, Potatoes, Blueberry-Apple-Banana Salad Monday, March 26, 2018:        Breakfast: Eggs with Spinach and Fried Potatoes        Lunch: Ham Sa...

Groceries purchased on March 24, 2018. We went to three stores today and purchased the pictured groceries.  As with last week, we are spending only cash and we are allowing the children to pick $7 each of snacks for the week. This keeps them out of the groceries that we purchase for the meals and reduces the number of "We have nothing good to eat!" comments as well.  Last week and this week, it seems to be working well. Here is what we purchased: Store #1: 1 bag Stacy's Pita Chips $2.50 (for Missy's Snack this week - we had something else to purchase at this store, so it was easy to pick up these on sale for her) Total Spent Store #1 : $2.50 Store #2: Cinnamon Crunch Cereal $1.39 (for Missy's Snack this week) Marshmallow Star Cereal $1.39 1lb Rotini $0.79 3pk Colored Sweet Peppers $1.99 3lb Mandarins x2 @ $2.69/ea = $5.38 (one bag for Buddy's snack, one bag for everyone) Total Spent Store #2: $10.94 Store #3: Tortilla Chips $1.99 Pota...

Spring flowers from May 2017 - I'm really looking forward to our first flowers in a few weeks! It is hard to believe that next Sunday is April already.  We have been super busy this spring and we were fighting major medical issues (thankfully, not me this time and they are now on the mend) that I am still deciding what I want to say about here.  Either way, we are on the way upward and spring is just around the corner.  We still have snow on the ground but we have patches of dirt/grass too.  The weather has been warm enough to melt the snow several days and the sun has been shining.  I am enjoying the sun so much!   Garden plans are in full swing and I am very much looking forward to getting back into my garden. I have not posted my frugal things for the last several weeks.  I decided to just pick up with this last week rather than wracking my brain to pull things out from the last few weeks.  So, without further ado, here a...

  Shamrock-Shaped Cinnamon Rolls for St. Patrick's Day.  Our afternoon "snack" after a lot of errand running on Saturday.  There was one roll leftover (upper right hand corner) that was mine! Yum! We're starting this week by celebrating St. Patrick's Day a day late.  John was at an all-day church event on Saturday so we saved our Corned Beef and Cabbage for Sunday night.  It was delicious! We have a couple of calm weeks before things really ramp up again (starting with Easter and running through the start of July), so we're going to enjoy it.  Here's what we're eating this week: Sunday, March 18:     Breakfast: Toast, Blueberry-Banana Smoothies     Lunch: Grilled Cheese Sandwiches, Carrot Sticks and Sliced Apples     Snack: Popcorn     Dinner: Corned Beef, Maple-Roasted Cabbage, Pineapple-Raspberry-Blueberry Salad Monday, March 19:      Breakfast: Scrambl...

Groceries purchased March 17, 2018.  My apologies for the dark photo - we need to replace the light over our stove and I didn't realize the photo would be that dark! John and I had a major discussion about the food budget this last week (well, it was actually the budget in general) and decided that since the children are growing so much right now (over an inch a week each) and he's recovering from a major illness that may take upwards of a year to heal from, it is not the time to cut the grocery budget.  We have $50/week in the budget that includes the CSA we purchase each year, any trips to Sam's Club or other stocking up we do, and anything we purchase from the Farmer's Market.  We decided we needed other places to cut right now, since food is more important right now. From that $50 budget this week, we decided to give the children each $7 to purchase snacks.  I am also planning on making No Bake Energy Bites and Oatmeal Cookies for snac...

Dinner one night last week - I'm starting to fall in love with Sheet Pan Dinners.  They're really just roasted whatever (here Yukon Gold Potatoes, Carrots, and Sausage) cooked on a sheet pan in the oven. YUM! Wow - I am having such a hard time believing it's the middle of March already!  How does that happen?  February was really, really rough for our family and March is looking up, which is encouraging.  We're heading into mid-terms and toward Spring Break at both my college and the children's school.  I'm looking forward to a break - and redoing the children's bedrooms.  We've been looking at cleaning out and updating for a while and it's definitely time.  The children are growing up and are ready for a more mature space plus we just need to clean out.  But all of that is for another blog post!  This one is all about menus. We've been buying lots of fruits and vegetables lately - the children are eating a lot (both are in a growth ...

It's been quite a while since I've done one of these posts and I decided I need to start again.  February 2018 was rough - 4 trips to the emergency room (ER), lots of medical/doctor appointments, unexpected and unprecedented problems at both of our jobs, and our children's school having to suspend 3 students in one day (they have never had to do that before)!  Add in the myriad of little things that have been happening (leading to my 'pecked to death by hens' statement in another recent post), and February was exhausting! We did have blessings and I'm going to reiterate those here, for my benefit mostly.  I hope you enjoy them as well!   Valentine's Day.  The children made valentine's for their friends and we enjoyed a nice dinner at home the day after.  We did buy chocolates and a few other little things for each other.  It was a nice celebration of the gift of family and love for each other and others.   A friend gifting me sev...